


Budapest

by ReginaNocis



Series: Obscure Love [42]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Coulson knows, F/M, What Happened in Budapest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 13:29:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13482471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReginaNocis/pseuds/ReginaNocis
Summary: In which Clint and Natasha bring up Budapest increasingly often, but in completely random situations. It doesn't add up, and they're not explaining.ORThree times Clint and Natasha reference Budapest, and one time they explain why.





	Budapest

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just really tired of not knowing what happened in Budapest. Here's my fix-it. Also, Coulson is not dead and the Avengers all know it.

_**1.**_ It started as a simple call to action. They suited up and got there with no trouble, and they had the upper hand within five minutes. Tony managed to subdue the mechanics of the whatever-it-was robot, and Steve had just given the all-clear signal when three dozen of the same robot they'd just defeated poured onto the street and attacked. They should have known better than to hope for easy, and Clint was kicking himself for assuming it was over. He was shooting as many of them as he could from up high, but the metal wasn't really ideal for arrows. He watched helplessly as one of them sliced through Natasha's thigh. She cursed in Russian over the comms, but it didn't slow her down.

"Where are these things coming from?" Tony demanded as a second (or was it third?) wave came from out of nowhere. "Can anybody  tell me who the hell built these things?"

"That's your area of expertise," Steve reminded him dryly. "Thor, a little lightning may not be a bad thing."

"Aye, Captain," Thor agreed. "Though it did not slow down the Man of Iron."

"My suit is more advanced than these damn robots," Tony told them. "They can't take an extra flow of electricity. It should short out their circuits."

"Should?" Clint asked, frowning as he managed to take one out that had gotten to close to Natasha. She wasn't limping, but he could see the pain in her eyes. Too many more hits like that, and she'd be out of the game.

"Yes, Merida,  _should_ ," Tony snapped. "I didn't make them; I can't make promises."

"Worth a try," Steve pressed. "Thor?" 

The answer was a loud crack of thunder, the clouds overhead suddenly darkening dramatically before an abundance of lightning struck the street with no warning. Thor was careful enough to not hit his teammates, but he got every single robot thing on the street. They all froze, the lightning sizzling across their surfaces long after it ended in the sky. Thor landed heavily beside Steve, not a lock of hair out of place.

"Good work," Steve told him, clapping him on the shoulder. "That should do it."

"Goddamn it," Tony grumbled as yet another wave of robots appeared from nowhere. "I'm over this!"

"This is worse than the aliens from last week," Clint muttered, counting arrows mentally. He didn't have nearly enough to take out as many as he'd need to. Natasha met his eyes from down on the street, and he recognized the look she was giving him. It was a look they'd worked out years ago, one he'd hoped he'd never need to use. It meant that things were about to go south very quickly. It was a look that meant goodbye, and that they loved each other. It was a look of regret and determination. And it was over in seconds.

"Alright guys, I'm over this too. I'm going to do recon, figure out where these things are coming from, and put an end to it. Can you handle these guys without an eye in the sky?" Clint asked. He didn't miss the look Steve gave him, like he knew what was going on and didn't approve.

"Go," was all he said, though. They all knew that they wouldn't last if it went on much longer. Those things were stronger than they looked.

He'd made it down the building (without jumping that time), and all the way underground when he heard Natasha's pained noise through his comms. He held his breath, never stopping but always listening, until she spoke. Her words make him smile.

"This is just like Budapest all over again," she gasped, the pain heavy in her voice. But the words were a reassurance for Clint and only Clint that she was alive and would continue to be for at least a while.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently," he told her quietly. He could see glowing ahead that meant electronics. He was close to finding whoever was controlling these things. 

"What happened in Budapest?" Tony demanded eagerly. He didn't sound winded at all, thanks to the suit. Clint and Natasha both ignored him. 

Clint rounded the corner with his bow up, arrow ready. There was a kid sitting in an abandoned subway tunnel with a laptop, typing code faster than Clint had ever seen anyone type. "You have got to be kidding me," he ground out, scowling. "A kid is doing all of this?" Said kid looked up from his laptop long enough to flip Clint off before going back to typing. Either the other Avengers were ignoring him, or they couldn't hear him anymore, because none of them reacted. "Kid, hands up. I'm armed and I  _will_ shoot you if you don't stop attacking my team."

"Am I supposed to be scared of a lame archer?" the kid asked, smirking. He didn't even see the arrow coming, because he didn't bother to look up. He did look up, finally, when the arrow embedded itself in his foot. "Ow, what the hell?!"

"Drop the computer and put your goddamn hands up," Clint commanded. He could only imagine the expression on his face with how quickly the kid complied. He basically frog-marched the kid up the stairs to the street, where all of the robots had halted. The rest of the team were standing at the entrance to the subway, arms crossed. Guess they had heard him.

 

 _ **2.**_  Clint was sitting in the kitchen with the last cup of coffee from the batch Steve had made with his breakfast. Tony was sitting on the counter, scribbling on a notepad he'd pulled from one of the cupboards. Bruce was at the fridge, pulling out milk for his cereal. Steve had left twenty minutes earlier to go for a run, something he did every morning. In retrospect, Clint should not have taken the last cup of coffee. 

"Coffee," Natasha said from the doorway, giving Clint a pointed look. Clint glanced at the empty pot, down to his half-full mug, and then back at Natasha, his eyes wide in alarm.

"Um," he replied intelligently. Tony had put down his pen to watch the show, and even Bruce looked amused.

"You didn't," Natasha said calmly.

"He did," Tony told her helpfully. "And we're out of grounds until two." A fact that Clint had not known, or he  _definitely_ wouldn't have taken the last cup. Natasha looked back to him, murder in her eyes. In seconds, they were on the floor. Clint was in a headlock, and Natasha was grinding her foot into his thigh. It was more pain than he was prepared for at ten in the morning. 

"Budapest," he gasped when she released him, and it earned him the first non-deadly look of the day. Her eyes held affection as she helped him to his feet. "And I'll buy you coffee from Starbucks."

"Black, like my soul," she joked. They both pretended not to notice the shocked looks that Tony and Bruce shared as they left the kitchen.

 

 _ **3.**_ Darcy Lewis was an amazing scientist wrangler. She took her job very seriously from the moment she and Jane Foster moved into Avengers Tower. Pepper had hired her to help Tony and Bruce the way she helped Jane, and she took to it as if she'd known them her entire life. She anticipated their every move, and she was ready when they needed her before they even realized they'd need her. 

It happened the very same day Thor had to go back to Asgard for some ceremony. Clint and Natasha were sparring in the gym when the whole building shook. This wasn't unusual, because Tony often had small explosions in the lab that was just a floor  below the gym. What was unusual was the fact that the building didn't  _stop_ shaking. 

"What are the chances they're just doing construction down there?" Clint asked. Natasha gave him an exasperated look, already grabbing a gun.

"We need to get down there and help evacuate the interns," she stated, ignoring his question completely. "All civilians need to be out first, then we'll worry about Stark."

"Stark caused it, he can get himself out," Clint agreed. 

Of course, it wasn't that simple. By the time they got down there, the interns were already out thanks to Steve. Darcy was watching from a spot under her desk, while Bruce, Tony, and Jane ran around the lab throwing switches and typing commands. And of course, because their lives weren't already weird enough, there was a giant black hole in the very center of the lab, eating flying papers and pens. Clint allowed himself ten seconds to internally freak out before he turned to look at Natasha and plan their next move. He wasn't expecting her to be smiling.

"Budapest?" she asked him, still smiling. He couldn't help but smile back, nodding.

"Budapest," he agreed. Of course, Tony was close enough that he heard their small exchange, and he actually stopped what he was doing to stare at them in disbelief.

"How can this be like Budapest if the coffee thing was? Or the robots? What the hell happened in Budapest?" he demanded.

"Not the time!" Darcy shouted from her spot, panic heavy in her voice. "Close the death portal and  _then_ ask questions!"

"It's a black hole, not a death portal!" Jane shouted back from her spot across the room. She was typing frantically into the machine that seemed to have caused the thing in the first place. Less than thirty seconds later, the black hole was gone. When Tony turned to ask his question again, Natasha and Clint were  _also_ gone.

 

 _ **+1**_ Phil was visiting. This only happened about twice a year since his resurrection, so it was a big deal for the entire team. It was the only thing they were consistently on time and presentable for. Even Tony was sitting on the couch in jeans without holes or oil stains. 

"You've all been staying out of trouble?" Phil asked, sounding amused. 

"It's like you don't trust us at all. This isn't Budapest," Clint grinned, knowing it would get Tony started. Phil's unimpressed stare said that he knew it, too. 

"Okay, now you're just doing it to torture us," Tony scowled. "Even Agent knows! Are you ever going to tell us?"

"Tell you what?" Natasha asked innocently. She even smiled, something that the team definitely wasn't used to seeing.

"What happened in Budapest?" Steve asked, surprising them all. Clint had always assumed Tony would crack first, and then maybe Thor. He'd always liked a good battle story, and they'd basically been implying that Budapest was a major battle for them. 

"Absolutely nothing," Clint admitted. They all gave him confused looks, and Natasha pinched his arm. They'd agreed a long time ago to never discuss what had  _really_ happened in Budapest. "It was a mission for SHIELD, we were going in to get information and leaving without ever being seen. It was the most boring mission I've ever done, completely uneventful."

"Then why do you reference it for the exciting things?" Bruce asked, looking confused. Steve, though, had a look of dawning comprehension. Natasha had been right, then. He had something similar with Bucky in the war.

"It's an inside joke. When things happen that we're not sure we'll be able to handle, we reference Budapest because it was a calm time and we wish we were back there," Clint explained. 

"You're just trolling us," Tony stated. "Every. Damn. Time."

"Basically," Clint agreed, grinning. "Sometimes we forget we have an audience. We were never meant to be on a team, you know. We work best alone."

"But together," Phil added softly, giving them both a fond smile. "Yes, I remember Budapest. I was your handler."

"Best damn handler out there," Clint told him. If Clint noticed Natasha's hand on her arrow necklace, he didn't say a word. And if she, in turn, noticed that he'd slipped his hand into his pocket to hold his ring, she didn't acknowledge it. Nobody would ever know what  _really_ happened in Budapest. That was for them, and them alone.


End file.
